The Use of Smartphones as a Digital Security Blanket: The Influence of Phone Use and Availability on Psychological and Physiological Responses to Social Exclusion.

OBJECTIVE: Mobile phones are increasingly becoming a part of the social environment, and when individuals feels excluded during a socially stressful situation, they often retreat to the comfort of their phone to ameliorate the negativity. This study tests whether smartphone presence does, in fact, alter psychological and physiological responses to social stress. METHODS: Participants (N = 148, 84% female, mean age = 20.4) were subjected to a peer, social-exclusion stressor. Before exclusion, participants were randomized to one of the following three conditions: (1) phone-present with use encouraged, (2) phone-present with use restricted, or (3) no phone access. Saliva samples and self-report data were collected throughout the study to assess salivary alpha amylase (sAA), cortisol, and feelings of exclusion. RESULTS: Participants in both phone-present conditions reported lower feelings of exclusion compared with individuals who had no access to their phone (F(2,143) = 5.49, p = .005). Multilevel modeling of sAA responses revealed that the individuals in the restricted-phone condition had a significantly different quadratic trajectory after the stressor compared with the phone use (υ = -0.12, z = -2.15, p = .032), and no-phone conditions (υ = -0.14, z = -2.64, p = .008). Specifically, those in the restricted-phone condition showed a decrease in sAA after exclusion, those in the no-phone condition showed a gradual increase, and phone users exhibited little change. Cortisol responses to the stressor did not vary by condition. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these results suggest that the mere presence of a phone (and not necessarily phone use) can buffer against the negative experience and effects of social exclusion.

Affect variability and cortisol in context: The moderating roles of mean affect and stress.

Positive and negative affect have been shown to have implications for hormones like cortisol but how moment to moment changes in affect (i.e., affect variability) influence cortisol secretion is less well understood. Additionally, context characteristics such as mean affect and stress may influence the association between affect variability and cortisol output. In the current study, we examined affect, stress, and cortisol data from 113 participants (age range = 25-63, M = 35.63, SD = 11.34; 29% male; 42% White/Caucasian, 37% Asian or Pacific Islander, 13% Hispanic/Latino, 4% Black/African American, 1% Native American, Eskimo, or Aleut, 4% selected "other" for their race/ethnicity). Participants completed ecological momentary assessments assessing positive and negative affect and stress four times per day for five days and provided saliva samples at each time point. Saliva was assayed for cortisol, and area under the curve with respect to ground was computed. In a three-way interaction, both positive affect mean level and stress moderated the association between positive affect variability and cortisol (b = -1.55, t(100) = -3.29, SE = 0.47, p <.01, ß = -4.05). When breaking down this three-way interaction, in the context of low stress and high mean positive affect, variability was positively related to total cortisol output. In contrast, in the context of high stress and high mean positive affect, variability was negatively related to total cortisol output. While greater positive affect variability is generally worse for health-relevant outcomes (as prior research has shown and as we show here at low levels of stress), at high levels of stress, fluctuation in affect may be adaptive. For someone experiencing a high stress week, having fluctuations in positive affect may mean that they are adaptively changing to meet their environmental needs especially when they typically report high mean positive affect levels. There were no associations between negative affect variability and cortisol secretion nor did mean negative affect or stress play a moderating role for negative affect variability. This study provides evidence that positive affect variability's association with cortisol secretion throughout the day may vary based on stress and mean positive affect levels.

A multi-lab test of the facial feedback hypothesis by the Many Smiles Collaboration.

Following theories of emotional embodiment, the facial feedback hypothesis suggests that individuals' subjective experiences of emotion are influenced by their facial expressions. However, evidence for this hypothesis has been mixed. We thus formed a global adversarial collaboration and carried out a preregistered, multicentre study designed to specify and test the conditions that should most reliably produce facial feedback effects. Data from n = 3,878 participants spanning 19 countries indicated that a facial mimicry and voluntary facial action task could both amplify and initiate feelings of happiness. However, evidence of facial feedback effects was less conclusive when facial feedback was manipulated unobtrusively via a pen-in-mouth task.